Japan earthquake and tsunami anniversary: evacuated Fukushima town becomes first to return home

A town in Japan’s nuclear-hit Fukushima region has become the first of nine
communities evacuated during last year’s crisis to return home.

The clear up operation one year after the tsunami, Shizugawa district, Minami Sanriku of Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan.Photo: EPA/KIMIMASA MAYAMA

By Danielle Demetriou, Tokyo

6:51AM GMT 02 Mar 2012

Officials from Hirono, located just outside the no-entry 12-mile exclusion zone surrounding Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, have reopened its original town hall offices.

Hirono’s local government offices, which were evacuated outside the region following last year’s disaster, are the first in the region to return home, marking a significant step towards the renewal of Fukushima communities hit hard by the nuclear crisis.

“Bringing back these functions to our head office is the first step towards the rebirth and full reconstruction of the town and environmental preparations for the return of residents,” Motohoshi Yamada, the mayor of Hirono, told staff, according to Kyodo News agency.

The reopening is timely, with the approach of the first anniversary of the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear crisis which ensued, with a series of explosions releasing large quantities of radioactive substances into the surrounding environment.

The tsunami disaster claimed the lives of more than 19,000 along vast swathes of the northeast coast while the situation at the damaged plant triggered the evacuation of 80,000 residents from the Fukushima region.

One year on in Hirono, it is clear that life is still far from normal, despite the return of its municipal government: schools and businesses remained mostly closed and only around 250 people out of the original population of 5,3000 are currently based there.

However, Hirono’s mayor reportedly plans to lift the evacuation request for citizens by the end of March, reopen schools in the second half of the 2012 academic year and complete the decontamination of residences by the close of the year, according to Kyodo.

The first tentative steps by Hirono to reform its community pave the way for other neighbouring towns to also commence the painstaking process of decontamination and rebuilding.

Kawauchi, a nearby village and another of the nine communities evacuated after the disaster, is also reportedly planning to relaunch its town hall functions in its original location later this month.